Online courses directory (469)

This course is designed for nonnative speakers of English. It will provide a basic foundation for academic scientific writing. It incorporates the building blocks of good writing in English language scientific journals.

This is a short interdisciplinary course on strategic thinking and some of its most powerful tools. Strategic thinking is not exclusive to business or military applications. The skills taught in this course can be used by everyone.

This course provides an introduction to the profession of evaluation. Key topics include the various uses, purposes, and benefits of conducting evaluations, evaluation theory, evaluation design, evaluation methods, evaluation practice, and research on evaluation. Additionally, participants will be introduced to core concepts in international development evaluation, program design and redesign, developmental evaluation, and career opportunities in evaluation. Beyond providing an overview or refresher on some of the latest developments in the profession of evaluation, this course will also provide a basic foundation for intermediate and advanced level e-learning courses in evaluation. The course includes a series of videos, interactive activities, and quizzes. Participants may work through the course material at their own pace, but within the online discussion forum, they can also discuss course content with other students and the course teaching assistant. Prerequisites: There are no prerequisites. This is an introductory course and is designed for beginning evaluators. Required assignments: The course is entirely self-paced and self-guided. You will progress sequentially through 5 modules. In each module, you will watch a brief video, read any additional information provided, and take a short quiz. The quizzes are untimed and you may re-take them as many times as you need in order to pass. When you answer 80% of a module's quiz questions correctly, you may move on to the next module. Time Commitment: This is a short course designed to give you an introduction to the profession of evaluation. You should expect to spend approximately 5-6 hours total completing the course. Certificate of Completion: After taking the survey at the end of the course, you will be presented with a personalized, printable certificate of completion signed by the course instructors.

Cancer strikes individuals, affects families and causes economic hardship. This open course is designed for people who may be unfamiliar with science but want a sound understanding of cancer and how it is diagnosed, treated, prevented and studied.

This course intends to contribute to improve citizens' quality of life, providing an overview of how to assess urban services interdependencies and subsequent vulnerabilities, while anticipating crisis situations, investment prioritisation and cost optimisation as an approach to the city as a System of Systems.

This seven-and-a-half week online course will introduce you to basic writing skills, especially as they pertain to novel writing. This includes everything from basic story construction and character development, through the intricacies of plotting. You’ll learn to identify skill strengths and weaknesses. You’ll also start thinking like a writer by developing your writing and analytical skills. During the course, you’ll learn to talk about writing as working writers do, and develop a toolkit of techniques, which you’ll use throughout your career. This course will offer both a badge and, certificate of completion. Cost of enrollment: $65.00 Required Materials: The textbook for this course is 21 Days to a Novel by Michael A. Stackpole It is available as a PDF from Stormwolf.com Cost: $20 The sample novel for this course is Star Wars X-wing Rogue Squadron by Michael A. Stackpole. (I am using this book as an example because I am absolutely certain I know what the author was thinking when he was writing this book or any passage in it, and that I can reliably relate the author’s true thoughts and intentions.) The book is widely available in paper or ebook format. There is one other book each student should read: any novel published in the last two years, written by an author after whom you would like to style your writing. In the first week you'll share your draft-choice novel with others. These shared books should form a solid library of examples to study. (Writers must read other writers.)

This introductory course is for people who are interested in studying economics or business management. Unlike research universities, study in economics at UAS focuses on how you can understand real-life business cases, apply knowledge to daily business operations, and use the knowledge to solve real-world problems.

This introductory course is for people who are interested in studying economics or business management. Unlike research universities, study in economics at UAS focuses on how you can understand real-life business cases, apply knowledge to daily business operations, and use the knowledge to solve real-world problems.

This course is ideal for students who would like to build their foundational knowledge of the field of psychology. It also provides an introduction for anyone who is interested in the enduring understanding of the field of psychology such as:
-Psychology is the scientific study of behavior and mental processes.
-Intuition and introspection are helpful to understanding psychology, but often fail us.
-The evolution of Psychology as a discipline is one which moves from intuition and introspection towards a more scientific approach.
-Different schools of Psychology investigate different aspects of the effects of environment and biology on behavior; there is no one "right" approach.
Learning objectives for this course are: 1. To identify theoretical underpinnings of the major areas of psychology, including cognition (thought, memory, perception), learning, personality, social and environmental influences, development, and physiology of behavior. 2. To explain different models of human behavior based on science versus intuition or general ways of knowing. 3. To recognize ways of pursuing questions in Psychology via discussion of theory and empirical research 4. To describe connections between knowledge gained in Psychology to everyday life.

This six-week course is designed to help the criminal justice student learn how to gather, analyze, and process data in the course of large scale criminal case investigations. The FBI Major Case #203, “Pizza Bomber” investigation will be utilized as a case study for this course.

Food insecurity is a widespread but often invisible problem among Americans. This course will help you better understand its causes and consequences, while examining the functioning of relief initiatives.

The Iowa Presidential Caucuses hold a special place in US politics. Join Iowa State University’s Dr. Steffen Schmidt to learn more about the caucuses, their connection to Iowa, and their important role in selecting US presidential candidates.

Be empowered to teach Java programming because every student in every school should have the opportunity to learn to program.

For approximately 20 centuries, the Italian peninsula has been home to Jewish communities, yet the modern nation of Italy was only founded in 1861. This course will examine both of these terms, exploring how a minority community defined itself and was defined by its neighbors, from approximately 70 C.E to the present. The long relationship between Jewish and non-Jewish communities on the Italian peninsula will be illustrated using a variety of sources, including architecture, art, Judaica, tombstones, rituals, literature, cuisine, and cinema. This course aims to deepen your understanding of a rich cultural tradition-- that of Italian Judaism.

This course is designed to develop undergraduate research writing skills by focusing on the expectations of this specialized form of writing.

Laura Ingalls Wilder's novels have inspired generations of readers. We will explore the second half of her Little House series and expand your understanding of the literary themes, style, and historical underpinnings of the last five Little House novels.

Laura Ingalls Wilder’s novels have inspired generations of readers of all ages all over the world. From this course you’ll gain insight into complex issues at the heart of contemporary Wilder scholarship: the question of authorship; Wilder’s depiction of American Indians and the frontier; the ethical ambiguities underlying autobiographical fiction and memoir.

Great leaders are made, not born. Whether you’re a student, an individual contributor, a recent manager just starting to lead others, an experienced mid-level manager, or someone passionate about making an impact on your community, you too can benefit from leadership development! LeaderMOOC builds on the latest research from the Center for Creative Leadership on the “fundamental four” leadership capabilities needed for success: self-awareness, learning agility, influence, and communication. Participants will vote on one additional area they would like to explore. The emphasis throughout is “leadership for real,” so rather than taking an academic approach, the course allows participants to discover, for each topic, something essential about their own leadership strengths and challenges, as well as how to translate these insights into real situations in the workplace and community.

This course will provide a generally non-technical introduction to learning analytics and how they are being deployed in various contexts in the education field. Additionally, the tools and methods, ethics and privacy, and systemic impact of analytics will be explored, presenting a broad overview of the current state and possible future directions of the field. Capturing and analyzing data has changed how decisions are made and resources are allocated in the fields of business, journalism, government, military, and intelligence. Through better use of data, leaders are able to plan and enact strategies with greater clarity and confidence. Data is a value point that drives increased organizational efficiency and a competitive advantage. Analytics provide new insight and actionable intelligence. Companies such as Microsoft, IBM, Google, and Amazon are investing heavily in technologies and techniques to help individuals and organizations make sense of and unlock the value within big data. In education, the use of data and analytics to improve learning is referred to as learning analytics. Software companies, researchers, educators, and university leaders are starting to recognize the value of data in improving not only teaching and learning, but the entire education industry. The growth of online learning and open online courses generates new sources of data for researchers and educators to better understand the learning experience.

Why do so many schools use letter grades? Where did they come from? What do they tell us and fail to tell us about the learners? What is the relationship between letter grades, student learning, and assessment? This six-week course will allow participants to carefully consider the history, benefits, limitations, and alternatives to using letter grades in learning environments. It will include reflection about the role of formative and summative assessment, strategies for leveraging technology for assessment, as well as exploration of authentic and alternative assessments. Other topics will include peer assessment, badges, self-assessment, and a variety of feedback sources in learning environments. As a way to develop a deeper understanding of the subject, participants will experiment with different forms of assessment and examine a variety of real world examples of learning organizations that do not use letter grades. This course is designed for individuals who aspire to work in a variety of learning organizations. Prior knowledge about curriculum development and designing lessons or learning experiences is helpful, but not required. Students will have an opportunity to earn digital badges in this course.